A 2017 study and report by The George Washington University has benchmarked the most common innovation proxies, and come to the conclusion that the size of a company’s trademark portfolio is a more consistent indicator of innovation than patent count or R&D expenditure.

A report inWorld Trademark Review, comments.

The result adds to the evidence that trademarks hold value beyond simple exclusivity and recognition, with one of the academics telling World Trademark Review that it may indicate that these rights “are actually undervalued”.